When Detroit’s new mayor and City Council take office next Jan. 1, they’ll wield less authority than either emergency manager Kevyn Orr or U.S. bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes.

But make no mistake: The task cut out for Detroit’s next generation of elected leaders is at least as important — and significantly harder — than what Orr and Rhodes will have to do to see the city through the Chapter 9 bankruptcy process.

The skirmishing between Detroit and its creditors may prove to be protracted and painful, but at some point, the bankruptcy process will force a resolution. Then Orr and Rhodes will move on to other financial crises, and it will be up to Detroit’s new mayor and council to conjure a new Motor City that is both solvent and attractive to people seeking a place to live, do business and raise a family.

That’s why it is so important that Detroiters turn out in force Tuesday to support candidates who possess both the vision and the competence to pick up where the bankruptcy court leaves off.

The steps Orr has undertaken to reduce Detroit’s debt and rationalize city services are decades overdue, and their importance can hardly be exaggerated. While almost every action the emergency manager takes is certain to antagonize someone, he has made the long-term interests of Detroiters the lodestar of his restructuring plans, and he deserves the support of Detroit’s elected leaders as long as he continues to do so.

But the real test of those leaders will be what they do with the smaller, more-streamlined and less debt-burdened city Orr leaves behind. Will they revert to the practices and politics that left Detroit unable to meet its obligations to residents and creditors? Or will they extend the progress being made in Midtown, southwest Detroit and downtown to more and more neighborhoods, advancing the vision outlined in the Detroit Future City plan and providing an example for challenged cities throughout the country?

The significance of Tuesday’s vote and the prospect that write-in votes may prove decisive makes it essential that votes be tabulated with meticulous care and unprecedented transparency. The Wayne County Board of Canvassers will have the last word in resolving any disputed write-in votes, and Detroiters deserve to know exactly how and why those votes are awarded to candidates or discarded.

We are confident that the Board of Canvassers, city Clerk Janice Winfrey and her staff will rise to that task, and optimistic that Tuesday’s primary ballot offers Detroiters the prospect of real progress.

But that progress can be realized only when voters recognize their city’s singular opportunity and select leaders qualified to exploit it.